Cat Breeding Cycle - What Pet Owners Should Know About the Mating Ritual and For Pregnancy

When the female is fully in season and ready to accept the male, she and the male work this out themselves and there is nothing you can do to hasten the process, she will flirt with him, rub her cheek on the floor and then offer him her backside, holding her tail on one side. He will jump on her and grab the back of her neck with his teeth. This usually subdues her and she will submit. He then straddles her and proceeds to enter her from the rear. He breeds her quickly and, when penetration is achieved, she will let loose with a blood curdling shriek.

The wise male will hurry to remove himself from her proximity before she turns and strikes out at him with her claws. Once he is out of her reach, she proceeds to roll about on the floor for several minutes, making noises.

When she has finished rolling, she will sit up and clean herself thoroughly, preparing herself for a repeat performance. Within about ten minutes, she is back at him again with her coy little noises, head rubbing and flirtatious ways.

He will again respond as before and the process repeats, complete with another shriek on her part. To achieve pregnancy, it is generally best to allow cats to mate over one or two days, although this will depend on the individual cats.

Whereas some males and females can be left together and enjoy each other's company, others will need to be separated as they can turn on each other and fight between mating. There is no truth to the notion that breeding your queen either early or late in her season will result in her having fewer kittens.

There is also no truth to the idea that you can dictate how many males and females she will have by breeding on a certain day of her season. The male determines the sex and the female determines the number of litter.

You might breed her in the middle of a heavy season, and she will conceive just one kitten. Or she might escape from her cage and have the male mate with her just once and she will conceive eight kittens. However, a litter will generally average three or four kittens.